1 From whence come
wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your
lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot
obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may
consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be
a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that
dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and
he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your
hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned
to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall
lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh
evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil
of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law,
thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy:
who art thou that judgest another?
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into
such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and
get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what
is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little
time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live,
and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing
is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not,
to him it is sin.
Chapter 5
1 Go to now, ye
rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon
you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall
be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were
fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your
fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the
cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of
the Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye
have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist
you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the
earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early
and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of
the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned:
behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name
of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of
patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of
the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that
the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by
heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but
let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let
him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall
be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another,
that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he
prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on
the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth
brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert
him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the
error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide
a multitude of sins. |